177: Subspace echo

Along the three expansion corridors, the colonial fleets acted like seeders, spreading the Human Federation's order templates across unfamiliar star systems.

New cities rose from the alien soil, the roar of factories replaced the eternal silence, and the ships traversing the shipping lanes grew increasingly busy.

In carefully selected desolate star sectors, massive engineering fleets began constructing Void Siphon facilities. Dark gold order runes and ethereal blue energy conduits intertwined and spread through the void, forming a picture filled with geometric beauty.

When the first experimental Extraction Well completed its final calibration and began tentatively drawing Warp energy at minimum power, monitoring stations recorded subtle space-time ripples—the pulse of the universe's blood being consciously and massively extracted for the first time.

Meanwhile, in the laboratories of The Other Shore-1, a breakthrough was achieved in gene-editing the Aidilus Biomass Body. A new variety with a 40% shorter growth cycle and a 25% increase in biomass conversion efficiency was successfully cultivated and named Pastoral-I.

Simultaneously, scattered samples recovered from the remains of the alien civilization wiped out by the mysterious Necrons at the Wall of Sighs exhibited unique psychic resonance characteristics, providing a new perspective for the abyss of order network's research into psychic powers.

However, just as the Human Federation was making triumphant progress Extragalactically and the Eastward Torrent within the galaxy was sweeping all before it, some subtle, hard-to-attribute anomalies began to surface quietly, like underwater undercurrents.

First, near the Extragalactic Void Siphon experimental site, monitoring researchers reported occasionally capturing brief optical distortions that could not be explained by existing physical models, as if something invisible were rapidly flitting beneath the surface of the water disturbed by energy flow.

Sensors also intermittently received meaningless, non-periodic weak signal pulses with encoding methods unlike those of any known civilization.

Then, in some newly established Extragalactic colonies, pioneers would sometimes experience dreams during deep sleep that were neither nightmares nor pleasant dreams, but rather extremely abstract and unsettling. It was as if they were in an ever-shifting geometric maze, with a low, incomprehensible hum echoing in their ears, feeling a cold, non-biological gaze upon them.

Although psychological screenings showed these dreams caused no direct mental harm or signs of corruption, their prevalence and consistency raised alarms.

Finally, it even spread into the galaxy. In areas at the edge of the Firmament Network or near the ports of the Extragalactic ultra-long-range transmission channels, Psykers (despite the Human Federation's strict control and screening of Psykers, some research positions and specific ships still required them) reported that the texture of the Warp background they perceived had undergone a subtle change. it seemed heavier and more viscous than before, and was occasionally mixed with an extremely distant, extremely indifferent echo, as if coming from beyond the galaxy.

These anomalies were scattered and could not be directly blamed on any known threat—neither Chaos corruption, nor Necron activity, nor a counterattack from the Empire.

But their existence, like a faint noise of unknown origin inside a precision instrument, heralded that something larger and more fundamental was being disturbed by the Human Federation's large-scale activities Extragalactically.

"Void Siphon energy extraction is stable; no large-scale Warp backlash detected. Colony anomaly reports have been collected; preliminary analysis shows no signs of harmful memes or entity intrusion. Psychic background disturbances require long-term observation," providence summarized the report. "However, the commonality of these anomalies is that they are all related to Extragalactic activities, especially large-scale energy extraction, and they exhibit a non-malicious but extremely alien character."

The adjudicator's analysis was even more profound: "Hypothesis: The Human Federation's large-scale presence and energy extraction activities in Extragalactic systems may be generating weak, non-active resonance or interference with certain primordial law projections in the lower layers of the Extragalactic Warp that have long been inert or dormant. These anomalies may be echoes or byproducts of such interference. The Extragalactic Warp environment may be more sensitive than we estimated, or it may hide more fundamental cosmic operating mechanisms that we do not yet understand."

"Maintain the highest level of monitoring, but the plan remains unchanged," Han Zhe ordered after a moment of contemplation. "The Extragalactic region is the keystone of our future; we must not be deterred by unknown noise. Strengthen the reality stability and information isolation of all Extragalactic facilities and colonies. The Void Siphon project will proceed as planned, provided safety is ensured."

At the same time, establish a special research group led by the adjudicator to specifically study these anomalies and attempt to understand their nature. Perhaps this is exactly our window into the deeper mysteries of the universe.

"As for the interior of the galaxy, the Eastward Torrent continues. The Empire's resistance in the Far East Star Sector is weaker than expected; the window of opportunity must not be missed."